There wasn’t much of a sample size last year. Only 13 games and 47 minutes during the regular season. Only 18 games and 366 minutes in the postseason.

But the early returns of a Karl-Anthony Towns pairing with Mitchell Robinson were mostly promising for the Knicks, with Towns — in the middle of the worst defensive season since 2020-21 in terms of defensive rating (114.7) — able to shift to power forward. Towns learned to play alongside someone like Robinson in Minnesota with Rudy Gobert, too, he said.

And given new head coach Mike Brown’s earliest lineup hint , with Robinson starting over Josh Hart in the preseason opener last week, they’ll likely have a chance to build on that early cohesion once the regular season arrives.

“He’s very gifted with his feet, just the way he can maneuve

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